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Comment by SapporoChris | Hacker News Reader

After reading the article and the Hacker News comments, I have to wonder if the approach is wrong.

Instead of using e-ink which does have it's merits but has a very poor refresh rate, why not use an algorithm to adjust typical laptop screens to be more visible in sunlight conditions.

Second thought, smartphones are really on the cutting edge of display technology. If e-ink was viable, wouldn't we be seeing at least some e-ink smartphones?

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E-ink smartphones do exist.

https://www.e-ink-info.com/e-ink-devices/mobile-phones

YotaPhone-style devices always seemed like such a great idea. The back of a phone is 90% useless, and the front of a phone is largely useless in direct sunlight.

Making the back of a phone an e-reader just sounds awesome, especially for larger phones.

The mental model of eink "has very poor refresh rates" is outdated. There are Eink displays on the market by Dasung and Onyx which easily do 40FPS refresh. The Modos project is using the same display modules and dithering algorithm as these monitors.

I am curious what sort of “algorithm” you imagine would work around the essential issue of trying to make a screen bright enough to overpower sunlight falling on it.

I take my laptop out to the park a lot and my primary solutions are to sit in the shade, and stick a little shadow box to my laptop’s lid via the magnets it uses to tell when it’s closed. It’s barely enough to make it usable; you have to fight against the fact that the outside world can be a lot brighter than any lamp suitable for sticking inside a portable computer.

The middle ground was the old Pixel Qi transflective displays, but those never came to market in any great quantities.

The refresh rate is no longer a product, look for Boox and Dasung PC displays.

I have not seen those. But based on my experience with other eInk displays, I suspect they are downplaying their refresh rate issues. I don't doubt they are better than previous eInk displays, but I suspect no one would watch a movie on those eInk displays and claim it's anything close to, say, OLED for example.

Good enough? I would have to try one out.

You have people reviewing them in YT. LGTM.

The refresh rate is improved on screens like the box Mira and dasung notereader, but is definitely still slower than an lcd and will have ghosting/other effects.

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